Surgical diseases

Small Animal Medicine and Surgery includes 1,625 questions, including 300 new questions, on anesthesiology, cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, hematology, medical diseases, nephrology/urology, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, preventive medicine, surgical diseases, and theriogenology.
Rationales are included with correct answers so readers will be able to determine why an answer was correct and which areas require further study. Questions reflect those likely to appear on the NBE.

Central to the development of glomerular inflammation and injury are alterations and
abnormalities of various cytokines and signaling systems. There are four chapters in
this book that deal with these aspects in the pathogenesis. The role of TGF-β in
progressive glomerular disease is discussed in great detail in a chapter well written by
Hyun Soon Lee, with particular reference to mesangial matrix accumulation, while the
role of STAT3 activation in glomerulonephritis is elaborated in the well written
chapter by Fumio Tsuji et al.

Cardiothoracic surgical nursing has undergone immense change over the past
decade, owing in part to professional, economic and societal changes. The profile
of patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery has also changed as cardiothoracic
surgery is performed upon the more elderly, the high-risk or those with co-
morbidity. Although previously considered at too high a risk for surgery,
improved surgical techniques, pharmacology and pre- and post-operative care
have resulted in a successful outcome for many patients and a return to an
improved quality of life....

Cardiothoracic nursing has undergone great change over the last decade. With the continuing improvement of surgical techniques, pharmacology and pre- and post-operative care, there have been many new initiatives and innovations in the nature and practice of this specialised sector of nursing. Rehabilitation and patient education are to name but a few of the areas where exciting new challenges and opportunities for cardiothoracic nurses have opened up.

There has been a major resurgence in stereotactic neurosurgery for the treatment
of Parkinson’s disease and tremor in the past several years. More recently,
interest has also been rekindled in stereotactic neurosurgery for the treatment of
dystonia and other movement disorders.

Unsustainable growth in medical spending has sparked interest in the question of whether
prevention saves money and could be the answer to the health care crisis. But the question
misses the point. What should matter (for both prevention and treatment services) is value -- the
health benefit per dollar invested. We discuss a package of effective clinical preventive services
that improves health at a relatively low cost. Cost-effectiveness should also be examined for
disease care, the major driver of health spending.

Lesions associated with left to right shunt, such as AVSD, cause high pulmonary
blood flow and congestive cardiac failure. The normal physiological response to high
pulmonary blood flow is for the pulmonary vascular resistance to increase. With time,
the pulmonary vascular resistance will exceed the systemic vascular resistance, and
the flow across the shunt will reverse (Eisenmenger’s syndrome).

It has been reported worldwide that health problems
caused by environmental pollution disproportionately
affect unborn babies and small children. It is also
known that children go through some developmental
phases that are highly sensitive to certain pollutants.
When unborn and small children go through physical
and mental development, different organs develop at
different times, and as such, some organs are more
sensitive than others to certain materials during
certain developmental phases.

Movement disorders represent major causes of neurological disability and
eventual mortality affecting millions of people across the globe. From
Parkinson’s disease to spasticity, these neurological disorders devastate
young and old worldwide. While progress continues to be made toward
effective treatment, many limitations remain.
The combination of the limitation of medical therapy and surgical
technological advances have, however, led to an exponential growth in functional
neurosurgery in the last 5 years.

Despite the significant decline in heart disease mortaht' rates over the last 25 years, heart
failure has remained a significant problem. We are now confronted with large numbers of
terminally ill patients for whom conventional therapies for heart failure have been exhausted
and for whom repeated hospital visits are necessary.
There now is a major thrust towards a management strategy which embraces a
comprehensive approach including vigorous preventive measures and earlier surgical
interventions.

We are very pleased to provide you with this book dealing with abdominal surgery.
The chapters in this book are written by surgeons, radiologists, anesthesiologists and
oncologists from different hospitals in Tunisia, Turkey, Denmark, Spain and Italy.
Together with basic surgical principles, the unique local experiences and perspectives
are presented.

Every patient knows to seek medical help when his or her aches and pains become
too much to bear, but how does the healthcare provider determine what is wrong and
what to do to restore the patient to good health? The answer depends on the patient’s
signs and symptoms and the results from medical tests. In this book you will learn
to identify these signs and symptoms, interpret the medical test results, and perform
the nursing interventions that will assist in solving or alleviating the patient’s medical
problem.

The prognosis for individuals with liver cancer is frequently poor. Cancers include those which have metastasized to the liver from elsewhere, reflecting advanced stage disease where cure is rarely possible. Similarly, primary liver cancer frequently complicates chronic liver disease, which further limits therapeutic options. Despite these dismal facts, there are signs that change is imminent. Not only have imaging modalities and surgical techniques improved, but preventive strategies and medical therapies show promise.

It is only 26 years since the first percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) was carried out by the pioneering Swiss
radiologist, Andreas Greuntzig, heralding the dawn of interventional cardiology. In this short time, interventional cardiology has
overcome many limitations and undergone major evolutionary changes—most notably the development of the coronary stent.
Worldwide, many thousands of patients now safely undergo percutaneous coronary intervention every day, and the numbers
continue to grow.

The general meaning of gene therapy is to correct defective genes that are responsible
for disease development. The most common form of gene therapy involves the
insertion, alteration or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological
tissues. Many of gene transfer vectors are modified viruses. The ability for the delivery
of therapeutic genes made them desirable for engineering virus vector systems.
Recently, the viral vectors in laboratory and clinical use have been based on RNA and
DNA viruses processing very different genomic structures and host ranges.

Research has suggested a link between nutritional deficiencies in early (including prenatal)
life, and the development of chronic diseases—cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus,
hypertension, stroke, cancer, and osteoporosis, among others—some decades later (World
Health Organization 2000a, 2000b; Jacoby 2004). A possible link between early nutritional
deficiencies and obesity has also been suggested, and it remains an area of ongoing research
(Pan American Health Organization 2003).

The field of movement disorders is relatively broad, encompassing disorders of increased
movement, such as tremors, dystonia, and tics, to disorders characterized by a
paucity of movement, such as Parkinson’s disease. Our understanding of the pathogenic
mechanisms and our treatment options are expanding at a rapid pace. This expansion
ranges from the medical and surgical advances in treating Parkinson’s disease to the flood
of genetic abnormalities that have now been found to cause various movement disorders.